Text 23056, 95 rader
Skriven 2008-11-03 17:48:54 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 23042 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Re: Money, Money, Money.
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RB> In Germany, our politicians actually want to encourage people to buy new
RB> cars by exempting the new ones for a maximum of two years from the annual
RB> road tax. Now, the road tax even for a large car amounts to no more than
RB> maybe EUR 250 a year, but a new car (NOT a new used car!) is hard to find
RB> for anything less than around EUR 15,000 - and that's one of these
RB> motorized roller skates you need a shoe horn to get into, not a real car.
RB> The road tax on something like that would be max. EUR 60 yearly. So would
RB> this "generous" encouragement induce _you_ to buy a new car?
 
I'm moving to Germany ... just got the bill for the road-taxes for my Chrysler
... 507 Euro ... that's a 2400cc.
 
But I understand the point you're making.
 
RB>WD> Problems here are solved without the need of going to war.
 
RB> If we exempt the Balkans and restrict our vision to the last 60 years.
RB> Without those exemptions, the statement is at least questionable.
 
The Balkancountries at that time were geographically on the European continent
but not part of the union although some are in the process now to be covered by
the economic umbrella.
 
Why is it that every discussion with an American eventually leads to Hitler or
the Balkan war?
 
The former's reign was made indirectly possible by the US's late involvement in
WW1 and the Balkan war could not be prevented by Europeans because it had been
US official policy to actively counter any European initiative to create a
European Corps for interventions. It was US policy to exert economic pressure
to discourage any talks about a joint European reaction force in which, of
course, there would be no US command structure. The US made everybody stick to
NATO, and NATO had no mandate unless duly authorised by the UN Security
Council. And we all know how pro-active that body is. I've had it with people
first making it impossible to react, and then when there's no reaction complain
nobody's doing anything. Besides, NATO's only mandate at that time was only to
react when one of its member countries was attacked ... it's a Cold War
leftover.
 
So when a new Chairman of the Commission needed to be appointed the general
consensus was to give the job to Verhofstadt. However, one of his agendapoints
was to sponsor the creation of a European quick intervention force where-upon
Blair was instructed by the White House to veto Verhofstadts candidacy (which
was a blow here because we figured we finally got rid of him).
 
Blair favored Barosso, as instructed by the White House, and Barosso quickly
adopted Verhofstadt's plan for a quick reaction force which exists at this
moment anyway.
 
The aftermath of WW1, i.e. WW2, was a debacle largely created by the US, the
aftermath of the Balkan war is a mess because of the way how the US took Europe
hostage, the aftermath of the fights in Afghanistan is a mess, the situation in
Iraq is a mess and you know ... I really see no red thread in all of this.
 
RB> However, there's no war economy in the States, no buildup like just
RB> before WWII, so we're not really talking about the same thing here as the
RB> period from around 1935-1941 in the States, which presumably helped
RB> shorten the Great Depression in the States.
 
The US industry cannot function without war. Disband the US military and
Boeing, General Dynamics, Haliburton and hundreds of other large employers go
belly-up. Tens of millions of people without a job ...
 
The US needs wars to justify its military which keeps the war machine going.
The situation is completely different than WW2. There is no build-up towards a
specific event or goal ... it just churns and churns ... With the Cold War
gone, new enemies had to be found.  Had Afghanistan and Iraq not been attacked
there would be no need for replacement cruisemissiles, attack helicopters, new
in-flight refuelers, F22 fighter-bombers , ... 
 
You need proof?  Airbus fair and square won the Pentagon bid for new in-flight
refuelers ... so after all was said and done, all the envelopes opened and all
the bids known the Pentagon changed the game to see how they could get it to
Boeing nevertheless ...
 
It's a war industry/economy ... any idea how much money these guard-members
make during a tour of duty in Iraq which then gets poured in the local economy?
A friend of mine built his house that way ... without a war that isn't
possible.
 
RB> However, what is being done about the financial crisis is controversial:
RB> I've already read (in a Spiegel artical by a German economics professor)
RB> that the American bailout package is better designed than the German one,
RB> and is actually being used when needed, whereas the German one
RB> stigmatizes individual banks and is thus not being used unless absolutely
RB> unavoidable - and perhaps too late in time.
 
And probably somewhere else some other person is writing the exact opposite.
The only thing journalists are expected to do is to make printed paper sell,
nomatter what it is about.  Woodward and Bernstein by chance were exceptions.
 
 \%/@rd

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